Cartier Tutti Frutti Bracelet (2024 result)

Jewels that had no name

The bracelet is a long, supple vine. Its stem is pavé-set with brilliant- and circular-cut diamonds; along it grow carved and cabochon rubies and emeralds, with ruby and emerald beads drilled and set with single-cut diamonds, and square diamonds as accents. It measures about 170 millimeters and is signed Cartier London. A Cartier certificate dated November 12, 2007, states that the jewel was created by Cartier London in 1939.

Collectors call this kind of jewel 'Tutti Frutti,' but nobody at Cartier did in 1939. According to Francesca Cartier Brickell, a descendant of the family, the brightly colored Indian-style jewels of the 1920s and 1930s were known simply as 'pierres de couleur' (colored stones), and Jacques Cartier sometimes called them 'Hindou jewels.' The fruit-salad nickname arrived in the 1970s, and by one account Cartier legally protected the name in 1989.

What defines the style is carving. The emeralds, rubies and sapphires are not faceted in the usual European way but shaped into leaves, berries, buds and flowers, then massed with diamonds in platinum. Many of the carved stones were themselves old, recycled from earlier Indian jewelry and given new settings in Europe.

One account published alongside the 2024 sale describes this bracelet as carrying carved sapphires as well. The catalog description of the piece lists only rubies, emeralds and diamonds, and this page follows the catalog.

Jacques Cartier and the road to India

Jacques Theodule Cartier (1884-1941) was the youngest of the three brothers who ran the firm in the early 20th century: Louis in Paris, Pierre in New York and Jacques in London. On November 3, 1909, he opened the London shop at 175 New Bond Street. The opening drew little attention at first.

He traveled to India in 1911, the year of the Delhi Durbar held for King George V, when the subcontinent's princes gathered in their jewels. Over some twenty-eight years of journeys he built relationships with maharaja clients and brought home carved gems, objects and textiles. On May 28, 1912, he staged an exhibition of Indian-inspired jewels at the London store: carved emeralds, large pearls and Mughal jades.

His own diaries explain the look he was after. 'Out there everything is flooded with the wonderful Indian sunlight,' he wrote. 'It is all like an impressionist painting. Nothing is clearly defined, and there is but one vivid impression of undreamed gorgeousness and wealth.' Back from each trip, he went first to Paris to show his gemstones to Louis.

He was openly willing to trade purity for color. 'Many of the Indian gems,' he said, 'are not so flawless as those used here.' That made the colored-stone jewels more affordable than other striking Cartier pieces, which suited the Depression years. The maker's mark on this bracelet is his.

Society, maharajas and the end of an era

The style's great champion was Daisy Fellowes, heiress to the Singer sewing machine fortune, whom Jean Cocteau credited with launching more fashions than any other woman in the world. In 1935, as Paris was 'overrun with Maharajas,' she held an Oriental Ball, and Vogue ran a double-page spread on the 'Eastern splendor' of Cartier's Indian-style jewels. In 1936 she commissioned the Collier Hindou, a necklace rebuilt from her own carved sapphires, emeralds, rubies and diamonds that is often called the finest jewel of the style.

Jacques's travels ended abruptly. On March 13, 1935, he collapsed with hemorrhages on arriving at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Bombay; it was his last trip to India. This bracelet was made four years later, in 1939, the year Germany invaded Poland and Britain declared war on September 3.

War closed the chapter. When the Blitz began on September 6, 1940, Jacques's son-in-law Carl Nater took shifts on the roof of 175 New Bond Street with hoses to put out incendiary bombs. Jacques died on September 10, 1941, at fifty-seven. With the war, jewelry design turned away from the delicacy of Art Deco toward the bold gold of the Retro period.

From London to Geneva

The bracelet's owners between 1939 and the 21st century are not published. Its documented trail starts with the Cartier certificate of authenticity issued on November 12, 2007.

It was offered in Geneva in May 2024 in a sale of magnificent and noble jewels, as lot 549, with an estimate of CHF 200,000 to 400,000. The sale closed on May 14, 2024, and the bracelet sold for about CHF 482,000, reported as $531,000. A published ranking of the year's Cartier bracelets put it first among those sold at auction in 2024.

It was not alone. In October 2024 a second Cartier bracelet in the same style, also dated about 1939 and set with carved gems in floral and leaf motifs, sold for about EUR 480,000, reported as $518,000, which placed it second on the same list.

For scale, the benchmark for the whole style is Daisy Fellowes's Collier Hindou. After her death it passed to her daughter, who had Cartier alter it in 1963; in 1991, with a pair of carved emerald earrings and against an estimate of $650,000 to $950,000, it sold at auction in Geneva for $2,655,172, then a record for an Art Deco jewel.

How to read the bracelet

Three marks tie the piece to its maker: the signature 'Cartier London,' a serial number, and the maker's mark for Jacques Cartier. It also carries French import marks for platinum and gold. The 2007 Cartier certificate supplies the date, 1939, and the London workshop.

The construction follows the classic recipe: carved colored stones shaped as leaves and fruit, smooth cabochons, drilled beads studded with tiny diamonds, all strung along a diamond-set stem. The carving is the point. As one reference on the style puts it, the stones are worked into three-dimensional forms that give the jewelry a sculptural quality ordinary faceted pieces lack.

The catalog does not give carat weights, color grades, or the origin of the stones, and none has been published. A buyer of a Tutti Frutti jewel is paying for the design, the carving and the Cartier name, not for gem grades: Jacques Cartier himself said the Indian stones were less flawless than those used in Europe.

The numbers

Carat weight

Not published

Color and clarity

Not graded in the catalog; carved and cabochon rubies and emeralds, ruby and emerald beads, brilliant-, circular-, single-cut and square diamonds

Origin of stones

Not disclosed; the style is built on carved gems Jacques Cartier brought from India

Cutter

Not recorded; maker's mark for Jacques Cartier, signed Cartier London

Metals

Platinum and gold (French import marks)

Length

About 170 mm

Timeline

1. Feb 2, 1884

   Jacques Cartier, who will run Cartier London, is born.

2. Nov 3, 1909

   Jacques opens the Cartier shop at 175 New Bond Street, London.

3. 1911

   Jacques travels to India at the time of the Delhi Durbar and begins collecting carved gems.

4. May 28, 1912

   Cartier London stages an exhibition of Indian-inspired jewels: carved emeralds, pearls and Mughal jades.

5. 1935

   Daisy Fellowes holds her Oriental Ball in Paris; Vogue features Cartier's Indian-style jewels.

6. Mar 13, 1935

   Jacques collapses in Bombay on what proves to be his last trip to India.

7. 1936

   Daisy Fellowes commissions the Collier Hindou, the most celebrated jewel of the style.

8. 1939

   Cartier London creates this bracelet, according to the firm's later certificate.

9. Sep 6, 1940

   The Blitz begins; Jacques's son-in-law guards the New Bond Street roof against incendiary bombs.

10. Sep 10, 1941

    Jacques Cartier dies at fifty-seven.

11. 1989

    By one account, Cartier legally protects the 'Tutti Frutti' name.

12. 1991

    The Collier Hindou sells at auction in Geneva for $2,655,172, a record for an Art Deco jewel.

13. Nov 12, 2007

    Cartier issues certificate no. GE2007-207 confirming the bracelet was made by Cartier London in 1939.

14. May 14, 2024

    The bracelet sells at auction in Geneva for about CHF 482,000 (reported as $531,000) against a CHF 200,000-400,000 estimate.

15. Oct 2024

    A second 1939 Cartier Tutti Frutti bracelet sells for about EUR 480,000 (reported as $518,000).

The world in 1939

• Jan 6, 1939

  Otto Hahn's discoveries in nuclear fission are published.

• Mar 2, 1939

  Pope Pius XII succeeds Pius XI.

• Mar 30, 1939

  Batman debuts in Detective Comics #27 (cover date May).

• Apr 30, 1939

  The New York World's Fair opens.

• Sep 1, 1939

  Germany invades Poland, starting the Second World War.

• Sep 3, 1939

  The United Kingdom and France declare war on Germany.

• Dec 15, 1939

  Gone with the Wind premieres in Atlanta.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Cartier Tutti Frutti Bracelet (2024 result) is number 37 of 100 in the jewelry entries of the FLOAT 100. 44 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (36 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The name 'Tutti Frutti' was not used until the 1970s; in the 1930s these were 'pierres de couleur' or, to Jacques Cartier, 'Hindou jewels.'
• Jacques Cartier admitted the Indian stones were 'not so flawless' as European ones, which made these jewels comparatively affordable during the Depression.
• Vogue once called Cartier's Indian-style jewels 'barbaric,' because the stones were carved rather than cut in the smooth European manner.
• Sapphires, used freely in Cartier's Indian-style pieces, were rarely used in India because they were considered unlucky.
• Two different 1939 Cartier Tutti Frutti bracelets took the top two places on a list of the most expensive Cartier bracelets sold at auction in 2024.
• Jacques Cartier's last trip to India ended when he collapsed on arrival at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Bombay in March 1935.